The End of the Beginning, Middle and End?
Written by David on March 1st, 2009I’m thinking about the place of fiction in the 21st Century. Might its role in our culture be diminished? Among all the other distractions available, how likely is it that an individual will discover and choose a novel or short story over some other diversion? Will most people be willing to invest the time and intellectual energy it takes to get through a longer work of fiction? Do people still appreciate a story’s resolution, a proper ending (something that doesn’t go to the next “level” or that doesn’t link somewhere else)? Might the fundamentals of a work of fiction change somehow?
Might it be true that, more and more, potential readers can’t find the BEGINNING, don’t have time for the MIDDLE and don’t want the END?
No, I don’t think things ever change that much.
Despite all the technological changes that are affecting the way people read, despite all the other distractions that are available today, I don’t think we’re seeing the end of Aristotle’s three essential plot elements. There’s something inherently satisfying about a well-constructed story. As has always been the case, there will be large portions of the human population who have no time for or no interest in a good, fictitious story. That’s fine. But for those in the know, for those attempting to peer a bit deeper into the human experience, there is no substitute for quality fiction.
Of course, writers, publishers and sellers of fiction should not assume that the rest of the world sees fiction’s indispensability as self-evident. Don’t wait for readers to come to you. Go to where people are and shove your valuable product in their collective face. Act like a pharmaceutical company trying to promote a new drug. Tell people you know they have a problem and that fiction is (part of) the cure.
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2
AM
David, I retract my Twitter-reply to your tweet about beginnings, middles, and ends.
It could very well be that 21st c. readers will reject the conventional structure of the “story.”
After all, if we’re rejecting, or more accurately dismantling and reassembling the thing itself — the physical object — well, it’s not only possible but probable that we’ll dismantle and reassemble its content and structure as well.
I guess this all goes back to my series at the blog: “Is this the dawning of the Age of E-Quarius?”
By the time we’re finished creating this new age — if it is a new age — there may not be anything familiar left standing!
Series is here.
2
AM
But even if we are in the midst of one of those rare historical periods of life-altering changes, even some people’s brains are literally changed in such a way so that they no longer have an appreciation for traditionally structured literature, I still believe there is something about that traditional structure that gives a reader an experience that cannot be replicated in any other way with any other medium. Although the people who appreciate this experience may be shrinking as a percentage of the global population, their numbers are still quite significant. Maybe treating these true elites as a sort of “local” community is one way to interpret Noonan’s sentiment.
3
AM
Well, I for one am hoping that beginning-middle-end survives the “new age.”
Frankly, I’m having a hard time imagining an alternative (which only may mean I’m lacking imagination).
Who knows? Maybe “reading” will become a learned skill in more ways than on.